With respect to broadband wireless communication networks, machine-type communication (MTC)—which generally refers to the types of typically automated wireless communications that may be performed by “userless” devices such as meters, monitors, and sensors, for example—is an emerging area of significant interest. The nature of the wireless communications performed by MTC devices may tend to differ from the nature of the wireless communications performed by non-MTC devices. With respect to non-MTC devices, downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL) data exchanges may occur relatively frequently, the amounts of communicated data may be relatively large, realizing high data rates may be relatively important, and mobility events may be fairly common. In contrast, with respect to many MTC devices, DL and/or UL data exchanges may occur relatively infrequently, the amounts of communicated data may be relatively small, realizing high data rates may be relatively unimportant, and mobility events may be fairly uncommon. Due to the nature of typical MTC device communications, cost reduction and power conservation may be objectives of emphasis with respect to designing MTC devices and the resource allocation schemes according to which wireless channel resources are used to communicate MTC device data.